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Second son of Sir John Acton. Entered Magdalene as a Fellow-Commoner in July 1819 but as a Roman Catholic, he could not proceed to a degree. The Test Act excluded Roman Catholics from the University and from taking degrees at this time, but was not a bar to residence in Magdalene as a Fellow Commoner.

Entered the service of papal government, elevated to the Sacred College in 1837, and became a Cardinal in 1842. During the pontificate of Gregory XVI he was consulted on all British questions. In December 1845. He was sole witness to the famous papal audiences with Czar Nicholas I.
Cardinal Acton was the uncle of Lord Acton, Regius Professor of Modern History.

In the College Magazine
Article: 'Magdalene's Cardinal and his Family. A Study in Scarlet', College Magazine, No. 46 (2001-02), pp. 95-106 (D.J.H. Murphy)

Third son of General Sir Ralph Abercromby and his wife, Mary Anne. Educated at Edinburgh High School and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1800. In 1801 he obtained a commissionership of bankruptcy, and subsequently he became auditor to the estates of the duke of Devonshire. He broke with family tradition in becoming a whig, and was MP for Midhurst, 1807–12, and for Calne, 1812–30. Between 1835-1839 he served as Speaker of the House of Commons being the first Scot to do so.